My husband and I have used TF's for two years. If you're not a heavy cell phone user, it is a wonderful way to save money. With some of the deals I've gotten, my monthly cost is around $5, and right now...my service days and a gazillion minutes don't expire until 2019.
Many times, it is a better value to buy a new phone bundle from the Q or HSN than to just buy minutes. For security reasons, it is always good to upgrade phones to the latest operating system TF is offering. Right now, that is Lollipop 5.1 even though Marshmallow 6.0 is out. Between the two of us, we've ported to 7 phones, since we buy phones with the newest OS as they become available.
I always say TF is good...until it isn't. I've had my share of problems. If you're porting from one TF to another, I would advise doing it all online following the instructions that come with the card in the bundle. Many times, it works as it should and the number ports quickly. Occasionally, we've had delays if we've been going from a GSM phone (ATT) to a CDMA phone (Verizon) or vice versa. When that has happened, TF's FB chat feature has expediated the process.
I prefer any method of contact over calling TF. I find almost all the reps to be difficult to understand. The language barrier can be a real problem. I've had transfers, disconnects, and so forth, before finally getting problems resolved. As @Nightowl stated earlier, TF will finally get the problem resolved, but it can take lots of time and lots of patience.
I had quite the experience a couple of months ago. I received the TF Treasure TS from HSN and activation seemed to be taking a long time. TF chat got it activated, but only at that time did I realize that I had received a defective phone with no sound! So then, I had to get my service transferred back to my old phone, and this is where my issue kept getting escalated until finally, a "higher up" got it all going for me with no loss of minutes, texts, data, etc. It took all morning and a lot of patience. lol A few weeks later when I felt brave again...lol...I ordered a different phone from HSN, received a discount for my previous trouble, ported it online, and it was up and going in 25 minutes with no problems. I might add that I thoroughly tested every aspect of the phone (wi-fi, sound, and so forth) before activation as I never want to activate a defective phone again. lol
And that is the crux of TF...decent phones, good reception, but poor CS hence the cheap price...or go with another prepaid or postpaid carrier at a much higher cost. The higher end phones at TF will do most things the phone costing hundreds of dollars more will do, and for me, that's enough. I put up with the CS...or more appropriately...lack thereof...because of the extremely inexpensive cost.
One piece of advice is to find out by asking family and friends which carrier has the strongest signal in your area. Or if you had a phone that is currently working well, do some research and see if it is using Verizon or ATT towers. If it's Verizon, you'll want to purchase a CDMA phone. If it's ATT, you'll want to purchase a GSM phone. This info is often told in the description or you can do an internet search on your phone model. We get both signals well here, but that being said, going back to a GSM phone after just having a CDMA phone, I had better signal strength with Verizon.
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